Dec. 5, 2017, 2:01 p.m.

Calling President Trump’s record on civil rights “abysmal,” the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People said on Tuesday that the president isn’t worthy of attending the Saturday opening of a civil rights museum in Mississippi.

“President Trump’s statements and policies regarding the protection and enforcement of civil rights have been abysmal, and his attendance is an affront to the veterans of the civil rights movement,” Derrick Johnson, NAACP president and chief executive, said in a statement. “He has created a commission to reinforce voter suppression, refused to denounce white supremacists, and overall, has created a racially hostile climate in this nation.”

Trump’s scheduled visit to the Museum of Mississippi History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum in Jackson has ignited controversy among civil rights groups and Jackson residentswho have criticized the president’s relationship to African Americans and other racial minorities.

Dec. 5, 2017, 12:58 p.m.

The allegations that Roy Moore made unwanted sexual advances to teenage girls are “very troubling,” President Trump’s top spokeswoman said Tuesday, but Trump endorsed Moore’s campaign anyway because the president wants the Senate seat to go to a fellow Republican.

“The president made that decision, and he decided that it was better to have somebody that supports his agenda than a Democrat that doesn’t,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters.

“We find the allegations very troubling,” Sanders said, but the “people of Alabama” should decide at the ballot box next Tuesday if Moore should be in the Senate.

Dec. 5, 2017, 10:47 a.m.

Senate Republicans are keeping their distance from Roy Moore, the U.S. Senate candidate from Alabama, despite President Trump’s recent endorsement, renewed funding from the Republican National Committee and Tuesday’s rally featuring former White House advisor Stephen K. Bannon.

Moore’s campaign continues to divide Republicans worried that their party may be irreparably damaged by supporting a candidate accused of sexual molestation and misconduct decades ago as a young prosecutor who allegedly dated teenagers, one as young as 14.

Unlike the RNC, the National Republican Senatorial Committee has no plans to resume funding for the Moore campaign that it halted last month after several women made their allegations public.

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Dec. 5, 2017, 7:50 a.m.

Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III spent $3.2 million in the first 4½ months of his investigation into whether anyone from President Trump’s team helped Russian interference with last year’s presidential campaign.

The spending was summarized in a report released Tuesday, the first of what Mueller’s office said will be twice-a-year updates.

The single biggest cost was $1.7 million for salaries and benefits, including $500,000 for special counsel employees and $1.2 million for Department of Justice staff working under Mueller.

Dec. 5, 2017, 7:26 a.m.

Rep. John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, the longest-serving member of the House of Representatives, stepped down today after his support among fellow Democrats collapsed amid accusations of sexual harassment by several female employees.

"I am retiring today and I want everyone to now how much I appreciate the support, incredible undiminished support I’ve received," Conyers said in a radio interview.

Dec. 4, 2017, 4:38 p.m.

President Trump meets with congressional leaders at the White House in September. (Evan Vucci / Associated Press)

After railing against Democrats for weeks and pushing a sweeping tax plan over their objections, President Trump reached out to the rivals Monday — a subtle acknowledgment that he’ll need their help to avert a government shutdown at the end of the week.

Trump invited congressional leaders to the White House on Thursday for discussions on a year-end budget deal, a do-over after Democrats backed out of an earlier meeting when the president tweeted shortly beforehand that he saw “no deal” to be made.

Trump had little choice but to soften his approach. Because many Republican lawmakers refuse to vote for almost any new spending bill, Trump needs Democrats to provide what House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) calls “the currency of the realm” — the votes needed to approve a bill to keep government running.

Dec. 4, 2017, 3:46 p.m.

President Trump has called the news media “the enemy” and routinely labeled reporting he dislikes “fake news.” On Monday, the White House broke another precedent in limiting the press’ ability to ask questions about the president’s decisions.

On a day filled with news, White House spokesman Hogan Gidley told reporters traveling with the president aboard Air Force One that he would not take any questions on the record.

While returning from Utah, where Trump announced a rollback of protections for national monuments in the state, Gidley read reporters a brief series of statements on a few news items of the day – including Trump’s endorsement of Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore and a Supreme Court decision to allow his travel ban to be enforced for now.

Dec. 4, 2017, 1:58 p.m.

Paul Manafort ghost-wrote an editorial about his political work in Ukraine, violating a court order, according to a new court filing from the special counsel’s office.

The allegation was disclosed Monday as the reason the special counsel was backing out of a deal on bail with Manafort’s lawyers. The deal would have loosened the terms of house arrest for President Trump’s former campaign manager.